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The Society for Ethnomusicology announced today the inauguration of its official blog, Sound Matters. I guess that ethnomusicology has reached 2005? But seriously, it’s great to see a more quick-moving, vibrant, and publicly-accessible avenue for publishing engaging materials about music in all its forms. We’re seeing more public, digital music projects like this that have scholarly imprimatur but lean to the accessible, like “From the Field” and “BloggingEthnomusicology.” I’m glad to see SEM’s continuing support for this sort of work.

The Society for Ethnomusicology is pleased to announce the launch of Sound Matters: The SEM Blog. Hosted on the SEM website, the blog offers content on a variety of subjects related to music, sound, and ethnomusicology. SEM seeks lively and accessible posts that provide both stimulating short-form reading for ethnomusicologists and outreach to readers beyond the academy. We encourage authors to consider this forum a unique opportunity to transcend the boundaries of traditional print journals with brief works that integrate hyperlinks and multimedia examples. All content will be peer-reviewed.

The inaugural post for Sound Matters is “From Scholarship to Activism in Zimbabwe,” by Jennifer Kyker of the University of Rochester. In this multimedia document, Professor Kyker examines how music and dance are critical to the work of a non-profit organization in Zimbabwe called Tariro, which supports education for teenaged girls and HIV/AIDS prevention.

One can’t help a very brief review: they could have devised a prettier URL pattern, I don’t see any prominent space to track pingbacks or other sharing (though comments appear to be allowed), and the ShareThis widget’s buttons at the bottom of the posts could use a bit of tweaking (currently no tumblr, wordpress, or other share options appear immediately when I viewed the page, but this could be influenced by my cookies). Otherwise, this looks like a great project off to an auspicious start under the able advisement of a great team of editorial advisors including a representative from RILM’s Bibliolore.

The post is first in a series, as Bibliolore writes, which will present “recent ethnomusicological field research to a general audience. Reports combine audio and video recordings, photographs, and narrative to explore music-making and social issues at locales around the world.”

This is not the first time musicians around the world have faced punishing consequences for being rebellious.

In light of the events surrounding Pussy Riot in Russia, NPR Music’s Elizabeth Blair reports on other musicians who have voiced unpopular political opinions. It’s an excellent illustration of the political aspects of music and song. In an interview with Afropop‘s Banning Eyre, focused on the music of Thomas Mapfumo, Blair observes:

The two year jail sentence for the members of the band Pussy Riot might seem extreme to people in the U.S. where musicians are protected under freedom of speech. But this is not the first time musicians around the world have faced punishing consequences for being rebellious.

The "Messiah" Stradivarius (1716), held in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

Is the reputation of famous musical instruments a myth, or do some exceptional instruments just sound better? Legendary Stradivarius violins have been the subject of almost mythological interest. Last year, the recovery of a “missing” Strad sparked interest in London. This brought up many of the peculiarities of musical instruments as objects. While “a violin” is a more or less run-of-the-mill musical instrument, “a Strad” is worth millions and considered to be irreplaceable. (Though not necessarily impossible to replicate.)

So, what are Strads so expensive? Are Stradivarius violins “better” than other violins? Do particular musical instruments have intrinsic, special characteristics that cannot be recreated on any others? These complex questions have been subject to long debate and are the topic of an article by Daniel Wakin in the NYTimes this weekend. Wakin describes the “Strad wars,” which pit the true believers (the players and the owners) against the skeptics (particularly violin makers and players who are not benefiting from a wealthy patron’s largesse) in a “long-running debate over whether the enormous worth of such instruments is rooted in myth or merit.” Although there are powerful ideas about wealth, prestige, and status that make playing a venerated object “valuable,” Wakin also points out that while the “mystique” of the great violin has been subject to profound scrutiny, “it remains powerful in our increasingly digitized and disposable world, where 300-year-old wood objects used to express deep emotion seem ever more precious.” In other words, if the digital world is more ephemeral, something about an ancient wooden instrument has automatic appeal.

A useful FAQ has been made available by acoustics researchers at the University of New South Wales, which takes up the question “What is the ‘secret of Stradivarius’?” They point to a number of complicating factors in answering such a question, notably the highly individual skills and approaches that vary between players. Moreover, since Strads have been used to define optimum sound for multiple generations of players, these instruments have come to more or less define good violins. Would it be possible to do better if they are the standard? Finally, despite what Wakin points out in the article (that these instruments are 300 years old), every surviving Stradivarius and other old master has been extensively rebuilt over the years to the extent that no living person or player really knows what a Stradivarius “really” sounded like. The UNSW lab also points to other studies that have investigated the varnish of the instruments and other theories that have been advanced to explain the Stradivarius phenomenon. (Read their statements here.)

Each year the U. of Michigan holds a symposium in honor of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In lieu of class, students are encouraged to attend events ranging from lectures to community service. In honor of MLK day this year, this short documentary about the 2001 recording session of Dave Brubeck’s oratorioThe Gates of Justice (1969). The oratorio mixes jazz harmonies, African-American spirituals, Jewish cantorial singing, and orchestral music in a commemoration of freedom and justice. You get a sample if you watch the clip:
The rare 2001 recording of Gates of Justice was funded by the Milken Archive of Jewish Music. Of the work, they write,

The Gates of Justice was composed during the tense atmosphere of the post-Civil Rights Era to help ease the enmity between Jewish and African Americans, but for Dave Brubeck the work’s message is much more universal. As he notes in this video, “this world could really disappear on us unless we really get down to believing in the original meaning of all the great religions and the brotherhood of man.”

Also of interest were Wynton Marsalis’s performance and words on today’s CBS This Morning.